News Release

Furukawa Electric Co., Ltd. has been awarded the 2015 FY President's Award and has received a certificate of commendation from the Japan Industrial Safety & Health Association.

Based on its philosophy of "Safety First(Note 1)," the entire Furukawa Electric Group was highly praised for its efforts over many years to promote safety and health activities, and for its remarkable results that serve as examples for other companies.

Background

The Japan Industrial Safety & Health Association (JISHA) is a special privately-owned corporation, founded in 1964 with the goal of improving safety and health and eliminating industrial accidents, through promoting the independent activities of business owners to prevent such accidents. JISHA has established a variety of commendation systems for those who have made significant contributions to health and safety activities and the like in the industrial field.

JISHA also awards companies who have particularly striven to promote industrial safety and health, have achieved remarkable results, and that have made significant achievements in spreading awareness throughout their region or the industry. The JISHA President's Award is given in recognition of these contributions.

Content

Furukawa Electric received the JISHA President's Award for 2015 FY. An award ceremony was held on Wednesday, October 28 at the Aichi Prefectural Gymnasium (Aichi, Nagoya, Naka ward) during the 74th All-Japan Industrial Health & Safety Convention, and Furukawa Electric received a certificate of commendation.

In receiving this award, Furukawa Electric was praised for its efforts to promote the health and safety activities of the entire Group and achieving significant results that would serve as examples to other companies, through striving to improve the level of health and safety over many years and establishing a Health & Safety Committee throughout the entire Group—based on its philosophy of "Safety First."

Furukawa Electric formed the "Furukawa Electric Group Health & Safety Committee" with the president serving as committee chairman. The committee discusses, sets, and follows up on health and safety policies for the entire Group, and works toward eliminating industrial accidents.

With realizing "fundamental safety," becoming a "safety conscious person," and “improving the level of safety administration” as its foundations, the committee holds danger experience training at the "Safety Dojo" and small group presentations held by safety personnel on such topics as following up on accidents and health and safety. The committee also trains managers as safety conscious personnel and checks the safety administration level of the group. The committee also creates and distributes major accident case studies to keep employees aware of past accidents, and improvement cases to spread policies throughout the group. Such activities have helped to improve the rate of lost-worktime injuries(Note 2) for three straight years at Furukawa Eectric.

(note 1)Safety First:
Mr. Masayuki Odagawa, manager of the Furukawa Kogyo Ashio Mining Office (now, the Furukawa Co., Ltd. Ashio Office), took the concept of "Safety First" that was being espoused in the United States at the time, and translated it into Japanese as "Anzen Senichi" in 1912. Enamel signs in the shape of a red oval representing the concept of "Safety First" were placed inside and outside of mines to inspire workers, marking the first safety activity in Japanese workplaces throughout our entire industry. (Reference: Looking back on 100 Years of Industrial Safety Work. JISHA website.)

(note 2)Rate of lost-worktime injuries:
An indicator that represents the frequency at which accidents occur. It is represented as the number of accident victims per 1,000,000 working hours.

Note

About Furukawa Electric Group

Furukawa Electric (TSE; 5801, ISIN; JP3827200001) Group started business in 1884, when its copper-smelting facility and wire manufacturing factory was established. Since then Furukawa Electric has become pioneers in the latest technologies by addressing diverse technological issues. Furukawa Electric has released products in a number of areas, including telecommunications, electronics, automobiles, and construction, with the three types of materials it works with at their core, namely, optics, plastics, and metals. Many of these products have attained the top global market share, and all of its products have contributed to society in numerous business areas. Furukawa Electric reported consolidated revenues of JPY 867.8 billion (approximately USD 8.2B) for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2015.

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